For restaurants that pride themselves on in-person training, digital learning can feel like a threat to their hands-on culture. After all, how can a screen replace the nuanced art of hospitality that's best learned through real-world experience? But what if digital tools could actually enhance hands-on training, making it more consistent, trackable, and effective?

Bricktown Brewery, a full-service restaurant and brewery with 21 locations across the midwest has transformed their training approach by combining hands-on experience with digital learning through Opus, leading to significant improvements in employee retention and service quality.

The Challenge: Preserving Midwestern Hospitality at Scale

As a full-service restaurant chain, Bricktown Brewery knew that hands-on training was non-negotiable for developing skilled staff. However, their trainer-led programming made it difficult to ensure consistency across locations and track employee progress effectively. Sara Edminsten, who leads training and manages new restaurant openings, needed a solution that would maintain the personal touch of hands-on training while providing structure and accountability.

“Before, a lot of locations got lost in the cracks of new things. It was playing a lot of catch-up when I would get back from a new store opening."
- Sara Edminsten, Training & NRO Manager at Bricktown Brewery

A Reimagined Training Program

Sara knew that hands-on training was essential for restaurant staff, but she needed a way to make it more consistent and trackable. With Opus, she was able to create structure for trainers while letting employees learn the basics digitally, making hands-on training time more effective.

From there, she developed a structured blend of digital and hands-on training that maximizes the strengths of both approaches:

The 70/30 Split between Hands-on & Digital Learning

  • 30% Digital Learning: New employees start with Opus-based training covering fundamental concepts, company policies, and essential knowledge. This ensures everyone begins with the same baseline understanding.
  • 70% Hands-on Practice: The majority of training remains hands-on, but now follows a standardized structure guided by Opus ensuring all critical topics are covered consistently.
“Training still needs the 1-to-1 human touch. Opus helps us hold our managers accountable to training and make learning fun and engaging. It’s helped us retain people.”

Blended Learning at Work

Results: Increased 90-day Retention and Better Quality Service

After Implementing Opus

  • 9% increase in 90-day retention
  • Estimated $42k reduction in training and turnover costs
  • Training updates now take just 4 hours instead of 4 weeks

With standardized training across locations, Bricktown Brewery saw immediate improvements in guest experience, verified through various feedback tools. Managers can now spot and fix service issues faster thanks to structured assessments. The operational impact has been equally significant - training updates that once took four weeks now take just four hours, freeing up managers to spend more time coaching their teams.

By moving to digital materials, they've eliminated printing costs while ensuring every location always has the most current training content.

“People lose their printed training books. Now that we’ve got it on Opus, we’re tracking them digitally, and it’s not a big deal if they lose paper copies.”

Bricktown Brewery's approach demonstrates how digital tools can enhance rather than replace hands-on training. By using Opus to provide structure and accountability while maintaining their commitment to personal instruction, they've created a training program that delivers:

  • More confident, better-prepared employees ✅
  • Consistent service standards across all locations ✅
  • Higher employee satisfaction and retention ✅
  • Improved guest experiences ✅

As Sara continues to refine Bricktown's training approach, this balanced model of digital support for hands-on learning has become fundamental to their success in maintaining high service standards while scaling across multiple locations.

For Sara, this is just the beginning. With core training processes now running smoothly through Opus, she's turning her attention to building out clear career paths for team members. By automating their role-based training, employees will have unprecedented visibility into their growth opportunities within Bricktown Brewery. This structured approach to career development aims to further boost retention by showing team members exactly where they can go next in their hospitality careers.

Most importantly, Sara is able to spend more time where it matters most - in the restaurants. Rather than being tied to administrative tasks, she can now focus on in-person coaching, observing training in action, and gathering direct feedback from both trainers and trainees. This hands-on presence allows her to continuously refine and improve Bricktown Brewery’s blended learning approach, ensuring it remains both effective and engaging for years to come.

Curious to see the training itself? Check out Bricktown Brewery's Manager-in-Training (MIT) on Opus.